David, I appreciate your perspective that we now have most of the building blocks needed to take on a National goal of reducing violence that will avoid much of the $300B-$400B annual cost of repairing damage of interpersonal violence in our country.  With an impaired economy, we certainly cannot afford to allow this internal bleeding to continue.   As you know, the current version of H.R. 808 stipulates that 85% of the proposed $10B operating budget of the new Department "shall be used for domestic peace programs."  There is no better time than now to build this National resource that applies proven techniques of constructive conflict management; utilizes our empirical knowledge that unmanaged conflict escalates to physical violence; and our increased awareness of the many forms of violence (e.g. structural violence) that are often the root causes of physical violence. 

I too am firmly convinced that we can be a more peaceful and hence a more productive nation if Peacefulness becomes a national goal.  Peacefulness can be measured as the absence of violence and the presence of opportunity for all 300 million of us.  And I have found that Johan Galtung's concept of violence is helpful in re-examining our social structure - "violence is any action that prevents a person from reaching their (positive) potential."  In this light, the lack of access to health care, affordable housing, quality education and training, etc. are seen as subtle, legal forms of violence (i.e. structural violence) that are often root causes of more visible forms of violence that are illegal.

But how does an large federal bureaucracy operate effectively to bring about change?  My experience suggests that it must be thoughtfully designed and that often a small version is useful to demonstrate how it will actually work.  But if we can place people on the moon and return them safely, if we map the entire DNA of the human species and begin to understand root cause of ill health, etc. then I'm confident we can also establish an effective national resource that effectively reduces the cost of violence (and actually pays for itself).  Equally important this national resource will promote opportunity so that every American has a better chance of reaching their potential.  We would become a stronger, more productive nation - not to mention the fact it would be a lot more fun. 

A small group of us locally have started a project to better envision what this new Department of Peace and Nonviolence might look like at a local level (using H.R. 808 as a top-level blue print).   We setup a WIKI site to allow our team to share ideas.  A start at a National Model can be found at http://www.dopnmodel.info/wiki
We've started to think about a state model (for Colorado) as well but the wiki site is currently down.

Look forward to sharing ideas with you and others in the future.